Marine
by Blue Hunny
Summary: A collection of scenes from Grace's point of view, some from the movie and some not. Surely the events of the movie had to pretty bonkers to her, right? Just a little something to keep fellow Avatar geeks going. Rating for language.


**AN: Well, here is another musing from my hopeless addiction to **_**Avatar**_**. Nothing too original, mostly straight out of the movie or script, I just felt like writing a first person collection of events and Grace seemed an obvious choice. It was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I found it getting tremendously long and decided to chop it in two. I will hopefully be posting the second part within the next week, but no promises as it still has a lot of tweaking to do.**

**Sorry if you don't appreciate all the gratuitous cursing, but my Grace is a swearing Grace.**

**Dialogue in italics is in Na'vi.**

**I don't own Avatar and make no profit from this publication.  
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* * *

I had trekked all day just to find a slightly different flavor of mold on this godforsaken moon, had gotten my ass covered in mud obtaining it, Dr. Rivers had dropped the sample on the hike back when he left his pack unzipped, I had come out of the link with a splitting headache, and now I had to be reminded of the one fucking constant in this universe, the one that always showed up to bring my research to a crawl: beaurocracy.

The marine held his hand out to me, waiting like a dog for a dinner scrap, oblivious to the hours…no, _days_…of extra work I was going to have to put in just to keep this moron alive. I had read his file a year ago when Selfridge finally got around to deeming the knowledge of Dr. Sully's untimely death important enough to tell me. Huh, untimely. Fucking tell me about it. His brother, the poor, paraplegic pinhead sitting before me, who had never even seen a picture of a helicoradian or a thanator, or a book no doubt, was going to be stuck on my team all because his DNA worked with RDA's billion dollar avatar. Can't let all that money go to waste automatically; no, let's give it some time to get wasted in the Pandoran jungle while ruining my day. Well, I sure as shit wasn't gonna sugarcoat it for him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know who you are and I don't need you. I need your brother. You know, the Ph.D. who trained for three years for this mission?"

His face hardened slightly, showing the nerve I had struck. Guess the military hadn't wiped out all his emotion.

"He's dead. I know it's a big inconvenience for everyone."

No shit. Well, at least he was direct. I could appreciate that. But if this marine needed to know one thing, it was that I don't apologize. Period.

"How much lab training have you had?" Do you even know what a lab is, jarhead?

"I dissected a frog once."

Perfect, he was a fucking comedian to boot. I would just have to chuckle my ass all the way over to Selfridge's office and let him in on the joke.

* * *

Unfortunately the humor of the situation was lost on Parker, so in two days I found myself babysitting the new guys in their avatars on a hike through the jungle. Spellman was a dedicated scientist, but taking in the Pandoran environment made him like a kid in a candy store. He was easily distracted and needed constant reminders of the experiments we were here to do. Still, he was better than the damn marine. That gung-ho idiot looked like he was ready to put holes in anything that moved. You'd think that someone who had just regained the ability walk might have found some appreciation for life, but that was probably far too complicated for an obedient military robot.

We found a good spot deep in the forest with a particularly intricate root network. I showed Norm how the roots responded like a nervous system to stimuli, sending signals to nearby trees. He was enthralled by the idea of inter-arboreal communication; I could see it written all over his face. He had a look of unadulterated curiosity: eyes wide, mouth agape, reminding me of the first time I had stepped foot on this moon, unprepared for the wealth of information and discovery it had to offer. Too bad soldier-boy couldn't be bothered to see beyond the sights of his gun, he might learn something more important than scratching his ass.

I glanced up, expecting to see Sully doing just that, but he was nowhere in sight. Christ, this was just what I needed. I was tempted to let it be; he would inevitably turn up, covered in wasps or mud, ready to admit that he was out of his element. But, as dumb as the kid was, he had a strong will to persevere and I didn't want him tearing up my forest while he expressed it.

"Pack it up, Norm. We've got a moron to track down."

Before we had made it two steps I heard the unmistakable sound of shit hitting the fan. I raced ahead to find the startled marine facing down a young titanothere and probably two heartbeats away from spraying its four-inch hide with useless lead. Idiots with guns, always there to make life exciting.

"Don't shoot. Don't shoot! You'll piss him off!"

The beast knocked over two trees, each at least two feet thick, with its massive hammer-shaped head. Guess it didn't want to help me disarm the situation.

"It's already pissed off!" The look on his face told me that he was still leaning towards the shoot-till-I'm-safe option. I needed to put a brake on his trigger finger, fast.

"Jake, that armor's too thick, trust me."

He pulled his gun up. Good, I was getting something through his thick head. Still, he wasn't out of the woods yet. The titanothere was flaring its cranial ridges, pawing the ground like an Earth bull. A bull the size of a house. I loved this place.

"It's a territorial threat display. Do not run, or he'll charge."

"So what do I do, dance with it?"

Jesus marine, get over the comedy routine. "Just…hold your ground."

The titanothere didn't find it funny either. It lowered its head and charged forward with alarming speed, fifteen tons of angry alien aimed straight at a kid who had set foot on this moon only two days before. I started planning my scalding diatribe for when Norm and I made it back to Hell's Gate to chew him out. The only plus side was that he was gonna wake up with one hell of a headache.

But the son-of-a-bitch surprised even me. His jaw set in determination, the marine ran towards the beast waving his arms. The titanothere crashed to a halt as Sully screamed in its face, daring it to harm him. I couldn't help but crack a smile as the hulking male backed off in submission and returned to its herd. The crazy blue bastard relaxed a bit, laughing at his success. Well kid, you've got balls…

"Yeah, come on! What you got?"

…but I wasn't about to start praising his brains. I shook my head, suddenly feeling very weary of the marine as he strung off several juvenile taunts at his retreating foe. The other titanotheres in the herd became agitated, turning to face our direction. I supposed species of any level of intelligence could recognize idiocy. As I smiled to myself over the mental barb, I became aware that Sully had broken off his insults and was turned around, ears rotated back against his skull. I couldn't imagine what might have caused him to change gears so quickly. Something let out the most chilling growl I had ever heard, bringing the hairs on the back of my neck to attention. My smile disappeared as I realized with a surge of fear what was wrong.

Then the thanator leapt.

As it landed in front of the now humbled titano-bully, I was transfixed by the image of Pandora's savage nature in all of its glory. I had seen one of these predators only once before, and it had had a hole the size of a chair through its middle from the HE round the Scorpion had put in it. I had had to convince myself of the remote chances of encountering one out here before I went on another excursion into the jungle. So much for probability. Its enormous muscles rippled beneath the ebony skin, its antenna-like heat sensors flared out on its neck flaps. I couldn't take my eyes off the teeth it displayed, each one longer than the fingers on my avatar. My breath was caught somewhere in my stomach, hiding like my instincts were screaming at me to do.

The marine was too naïve to be in shock, however, and he brought me back to reality.

"So what about this one? Run, don't run, what?" The fucking idiot didn't even know how screwed he was.

"Run! Definitely Run!"

I guess he could hear the panic in my voice, because he took off into the brush behind him. The thanator followed close behind and pounced, coming within feet of crushing him in its jaws. The lucky bastard slipped between some roots and out of sight, but the chase wouldn't be over that easily; once a thanator fixated on a particular prey it would do anything to obtain it. This creature was no exception, ignoring us other available morsels in favor of a leap after the retreating marine. Norm and I stared on in horror as the sounds of the pursuit faded further and further away. Finally, I willed myself to react.

"Oh crap."

* * *

We spent hours in the chopper looking for some trace of the blue fool, but the endless green expanse below would be betray no hint of his fate. I was surprised that I felt sorry for the son-of-a-bitch, that I was worried about a marine who had done nothing but piss me off since he showed up. I suppose I knew it was my own problems that were being projected on him unfairly, but that psychobabble wasn't enough to let him off the hook. Besides, I had the whole flight back to Hell's Gate to let my temper get the better of my pity.

I took my avatar back to the barracks as soon as we landed, eager to introduce Sully to his new assignment: punching bag. When I woke in the link room I had run through about every curse and insult I could think of, picking a few cherries out of the bunch that I felt best suited the idiot and his hardheaded need to prove himself in _my_ sandbox. I saw Max and a group of lab techs surrounding his opened chamber, and as I stormed over to vent my frustration on the hapless bastard I started at the top of the list.

"That goddamned cocksucker better be writhing in pain or I'm gonna finish what the thanator started."

Max turned to me with a look of concern, cutting off my diatribe. "Grace, he's still in there. In his avatar."

I looked down upon Jake's motionless body. Well, almost motionless. His breathing was steady and he was still exhibiting REM, a clear sign that the link was active, even without the aid of the machine. My anger dissipated immediately, replaced with both curiosity and worry about this unexpected turn of events.

"How have his vitals been?"

"He was exhibiting a high level of stress for several hours after you reported his…separation. His adrenaline was through the roof, heart rate was oscillating between one hundred and one hundred fifty beats per minute. Then it dropped for thirty minutes before spiking again. Now, for the past two and a half hours he's been stable, but I don't think we could get him out of there short of a direct override." Max glanced at the red button on the panel next to the machine.

I knew the risk to drivers associated with a forced withdrawal, and I didn't want to risk harm to the avatar by dropping it in the middle of whatever he was doing if there was a chance we could save it. In any case I didn't need a catatonic paraplegic marine to worry about; he was bad enough as he was. I would just have to hope that his jarhead training would get him somewhere safe for the remainder of the night so he could try and sever the link.

"No, I don't think we need that just yet. Give him time, he may be able to make it back himself."

Jake started to stir. Someone's ears were burning.

Max checked on the diagnostic to his right. "His breathing is getting slower. Neural activity is dropping; I think he's trying to come out."

I grabbed a penlight from my coat pocket, waving it back and forth over his face to see if he could track it. The rest of the team crowded around, straining to see signs of activity from the marine.

"Jake. Jake." At first he showed little response, eyes barely open in a thousand-yard stare.

"Jake. Jake! Come on back, kid!" His eyes snapped open the rest of the way, darting back and forth, and his breathing rose to normal levels. Relief hit me unexpectedly; I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath while he came to. I slapped his head gently, hoping to knock any lingering cobwebs out of his consciousness. "Come on, that's it." I cajoled him further, surprised at my concern toward this naïve, stubborn man. So much like a child, really.

With the help of the others I lifted him into a sitting position. "Damn, you were dug in like a tick!" I chuckled, still feeling the lingering effects of my relief. Still, there were pressing matters to address. "Is the avatar safe?"

"Yeah Doc…and you are not gonna believe where I am." He grinned at me, beaming like a school kid that had aced his math test. Well, he sure as hell wasn't getting a cookie just for escaping a thanator he had drawn to himself.

"So? I haven't got all night." It didn't sound as annoyed as I had wanted.

"I'm with the natives, up in their tree. Some kinda hammock or something." It took me a moment to register the information. He had gotten into the Omatikaya's Kelutrel? I supposed it wasn't far from where we were separated, but damn. They hadn't even let me near that place for more than two years, and the marine was having a fucking sleepover? _That_ was a story I would have to hear. "And that ain't the half of it…they're gonna have someone show me the ropes, to learn their ways. I start training tomorrow."

I felt my draw drop a few stories. No way. No way in _hell_. Thirty trained professionals who knew the language and customs, knew the forest and understood its importance to the Omatikaya, had not made one dent in the years-long impasse between the humans and the Na'vi. And here was this greenhorn, fresh from the mindless ranks of baby killers, unable to string two damn words together…

Shut up, Grace. There's more to this marine than meets the eye.

The others seemed to echo my disbelief. Norm looked like he was going to cry; the poor bastard had probably been waiting half his life to see the Na'vi, but a moron with a bad-luck streak had beaten him to it. To some degree I could sympathize, but I wasn't about to let an opportunity to regain the trust of the Omatikaya slip through my fingers. We were going to have to turn Jake Sully into an expert on the Na'vi, and soon. I could already feel the headache forming.

Ain't life a bitch.

* * *

"Grace, I think he's a spy."

Max was sitting across from me, shifting uneasily. He looked worried, darting his eyes back and forth as if he expected someone to suddenly take interest in our conversation. He hadn't even touched his food. I took a bite of my own processed vegetable gunk. Meh, he wasn't missing anything.

"I've seen him talking to Selfridge and Quaritch. They're always bunched around the holodisplay, watching intently while he shows them details about Hometree. Grace, you know why they're interested in Hometree, and it isn't for the view. For all we know, Jake doesn't see it any differently."

I glared at him. I knew what the marine was doing; he did a shitty job hiding it. But I wasn't ready to give up on the bastard, there was too much riding on him. Besides, I had seen the way he got excited about entering the link, and the way he looked at his legs when he came back out. He was enjoying himself out there, and that meant spending as much time as possible learning from the Omatikaya. It was a challenge, something no one had done before, and if I knew anything about Jake Sully it was that he didn't back down. Stubborn jackass. Well, no more so than his teacher…

I couldn't help but smile at that thought. I had known Neytiri when she was younger. She was bright, tenacious, resilient, fierce; everything that could be expected from the daughter of Eytukan and Mo'at. And she had no love for humans. I could only imagine her reaction when she was given the duty of teaching an avatar the ways of the Omatikaya. I was sure it involved teeth. After what had happened to her, I couldn't believe that she hadn't already killed him.

The memory of her last day at the school came to me unbidden. It had started as such a good day: the children were finally getting the hang of the concept of "reading", and I had given them a book I wrote to be their first attempt. I had them take turns reciting passages from it while giving me explanations of the story in Na'vi. "'I think I can I think I can I think I can' thought the little ikran as he struggled to fly over the mountain"_._ Ha, I loved my job.

But then the handful of young hunters had come, smelling of smoke and sweat. They had burst into the room, fear filling their eyes and their voices. "_Karyu, help us! They are coming!_" It was Sylwanin who spoke for the group as she ran over to clutch my arm in her shaking hand. She looked frantically about the room, settling on her little sister, Neytiri. A look of horror crossed her face, as if she realized she had done something terribly wrong. "_Please, get them out of here, get all the children out! Hurry!"_ I hadn't bothered asking for details. I herded everyone out the door, telling them to make for Hometree. The hunters had stayed with me, ensuring that each child was accounted for. Many of the young ones were crying, frightened by the sudden need to flee. Just as they had reached the forest, I heard the sound of heavy footsteps from behind the school. AMPs. Neytiri paused by me as I turned to see what was happening. I wished I hadn't.

"That's them. Light 'em up!"

The hellish sound of gunfire erupted from the three suits standing at the edge of the clearing. I stared in horror as each of the young hunters, none more than a year past their first bonding with an ikran, fell to the forest floor with rapidly spreading crimson marring their blue skin. Sylwanin had looked over at us as she weakly writhed on the ground, mouthing something I couldn't understand. I heard Neytiri screaming beside me as the AMPs turned their attention to us. I broke through my shock, grabbing Neytiri and hurling her toward the nearby brush. "Goddammit, _run_!"

Then they had shot me.

I smashed my fist into the table, causing Max to jump back. The scars never went away, but the physical ones were easier to forget. I had learned later that the hunters had burned a bulldozer in an attempt to hamper the destruction of their forest. Parker had been angry enough at the loss of equipment that he had ordered the security detail to pursue them, straight back to the school. Somewhere in my mind I had known that tensions would come to a head and that I could have warned the Na'vi about what the RDA would do, but I had wanted to shield them from the ugly aspects of humanity so they would accept my help. Fucking selfish, that was all. I felt as if I had betrayed the Na'vi, as if I had pulled the triggers myself. I hadn't ever needed to speak to them to know that neither I nor any other uniltiranyu was welcome in their lands, and I didn't blame them. It had been years since that day, but I still had the nightmares to remind me of my failure.

But was I about to fail them again? I was allowing an agent of the same people that had authorized the massacre at the school to continue to interact with the Omatikaya, all for some selfish need to get back in their good graces. This could be the worst decision of your life, Grace.

Or it could be the best. I still couldn't bring myself to believe that Jake was wholly in the RDA's camp; I still clung to the hope that I could use my opportunity to make things right.

Max looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to pull our asses out of the fire before we even jumped in. Well, I guess I could buy some time to ensure that the marine didn't get too caught up in the corporation's game.

"All right, its time Corporal Sully got a bit of fresh air. We're heading out to Site 26."

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**After writing about the part where Grace is teaching the Na'vi to read English, it occurred to me that the Na'vi don't seem to have any written language of their own, so the idea that they could successfully be taught to read English is somewhat far-fetched. But, I didn't feel like removing it because it made me smile, so it will simply have to be.**

**Thanks for reading! Now, review please! Or wait until the second part is posted, but review at some point in time. Nothing is more frustrating than having a story with more favorites than reviews. I don't care what you say. Go on about how much you like the movie. Tell me you think my vocabulary is redonkulous. Tell me I'm pretty. Just tell me something, it only takes a few seconds. Guten Abend.**


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